OPA-LOCKA, Fla. — The 30th anniversary of the deaths of four Brothers To The Rescue volunteers was painful for José Basulto and the other mourners who met on Tuesday at a memorial in Opa-locka.
At 85 years old, Basulto used a wheelchair when he held a large sign in front of a small monument during a ceremony at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, at 14201 NW 42nd Ave.
The sign had photos of the four pilots killed in 1996, in the Florida Straits: Carlos Alejandre, 45; Armando Costa, 29; Mario De la Peña, 24; and Pablo Morales, 29. Basulto said he doesn’t want them to be forgotten.
“I remember that we were being attacked, and I remember the smoke in the sky,” said Basulto, who piloted the only plane that returned to the airport after three departed on Feb. 24, 1996.
Basulto had founded the nonprofit organization after the Soviet Union collapsed and focused on rescuing Cubans during the rafting crisis that followed.
“We are asking for the indictment, the criminal indictment of Raúl Castro,” Basulto said on Tuesday about Castro’s involvement in the order that preceded the Cuban Air Force pilots who shot down two Miami-based unarmed Cessna 337 Skymasters.
Sylvia G. Iriondo, a passenger who survived with Basulto, was also at the ceremony. At 81, she also remembers and also wants justice.
“I remember them smiling full of hope ... Nothing has been done. There has been no will to indict the persons responsible ... It’s time for Democratic change in the island ... The pain and the blockade is produced by the regime ... We feel their pain. We hear their pain, and we have always been there accompanying them in this nightmare, but the nightmare has to end,” Iriondo said.
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